Has anyone used Lords of Madness in Eberron? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Has anyone used Lords of Madness in Eberron? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
talion09
06-30-05, 04:02 AM Or more to the point, has anyone used the material in Lords of Madness to any great effect in their Eberron campaigns?

I'm contemplating a large campaign arc revolving around the Cults of Dragon Below, the Daelkyr, Gatekeepers and of course, abominations. I was flipping through my copy of LoM today, and I wondered if anyone has actually used the material in Eberron.

Ideas I'm toying with...

An Aboleth City in the seas around Xendrik... or maybe an Aboleth setting up shop in the sewers of Sharn, and sending out its Skum and other servants to cause trouble

Neogi instigating giants to attack Stormreach in order that they can keep Xendrik's ruins and resources to themselves. Okay, I really just want an excuse to run through the classic Against the Giants again, and this gives me an excuse to throw Giants, Umber Hulks & Abberations at my players :-)

Tsochar taking over the upper society of Sharn, one dragonmark heir and wizard at a time... actually, I can envision a cool shadow war between the tsochar & their hosts and the Quori-influenced Deneith Heirs over who gets to corrupt and control the dragonmark heirs of Sharn... or my players come back to Sharn after completing GotEC, and find out the hard way that Lady Elaydren has been possessed by a tsochar

Anyways, I'd appreciate any feedback from people who have done Abberation-focused campaigns in Eberron, or have tried using some of the Lords of Madness material.
Setherial
06-30-05, 05:51 AM yeb, I used it to get into the aboleth mindset. I have an adventure worked out where an aboleth is trying to sink Khorvaire using an epic staff of weather controlling. I posed the idea about a month ago but by now the post dropped of the forum post list. Since there is no way of searching this forum, the post is gone.
Damien_Hiro
06-30-05, 10:50 AM Are you doing a heroic or horrorific campaign. I have done the Horrific campaign and my group still shudders at the words, "mmm...brains." It was probably one of the best campaigns I have done. At the end there was an epic battle between the gorup and an ultraillithid. Only two PC's survived to retire after that, but they were never the same. Your charcters either become super paranoid or not paranoid enough and die.
ekomega
06-30-05, 01:17 PM Since my group will be going against the minions of the Daelkyr in the near future, I plan to use some of material.

Of particular interest are illithids, the far realm template, the pseudonatural template, and a few PrCs to give some allies of the group. I don't know how much of the random stuff I will use. But it certainly has good material for a Daelkyr adventure or campaign.
talion09
06-30-05, 02:13 PM Well, I searched (okay, search is still down, but I manually looked through all the pages of old threads, lol) for the old thread we had on Lords of Madness in Eberron, but it appears to have been deleted due to old age.

I recall that someone else some good ideas about the Neogi. Specifically, that they were creations of the Daelkyr, and that they dwelt in Khyber, traversing the underdark looking for profit. Dwelling in Khyber made sense too when considering their umber hulk slaves, who have the ability to burrow through solid rock. The neogi spiderships were translated from flying machines to underground transports called spidercrawlers.

Anyways, I got to thinking about the idea of spidercrawlers. Originally the spiderships were flying ships which could also travel to other worlds, which implies a couple of things in relation to Eberron (or at least my campaign)

First, the only other example we have of flying vessels in Eberron is the House Lyrandar/Zilargo airships, which use the newly "discovered" gnomish technique of elemental binding. Elemental binding which incidently uses Khyber shards to bind the elementals, dragonshards which would be fairly common and easy to acquire for the Neogi in their travels through Khyber.

Secondly, the Neogi Spiderships seem to be more advanced or powerful than the Lyrandar/Zilargo airships, by virtue of their planar travel. It isn't explicitly stated how this planar travel is accomplished in LoM, but I think that is because not all DM's want to deal with Spelljammer. But whether it is actually through flying through the void, or by some other sort of magic, the spiderships seem to be more advanced versions of the Lyrandar airships.

Thirdly, the Neogi will deal with anyone for a profit. Same goes for the Zilargo gnomes. And both Neogi and Gnomes are tricky, plotting sneaks, looking out for themselves first, and the Gnomes of Zilargo were understandably desperate during the Last War, especially with the new prominence of the goblinoids in Khorvaire's power structure.

What if the Gnomes didn't "invent" the elemental binding techniques, but instead acquired it from Neogi traders?

The gnomes get a new technology which makes them more powerful and influential, not to mention rich. But they would want to conceal the real source of their knowledge for a couple of reasons. First, if other nations make the same deal with the Neogi, then the Zilargo advantage is diminished. Secondly, openly dealing with daelkyr spawn from khyber is a bit a PR nightmare for the gnomes. Thirdly, who knows what price they paid for the knowledge. I'm guessing a large chunk of cash and gems, and most likely a lot of slaves that "died" during the Last War.

I'm not sure if I'm going to run with this idea in my campaign, but the idea of the Trust making unsavory and covert deals with the Neogi to acquire weapons technology during the Last War to increase Zilargo's prestige and to help counterbalance the upsurge in Goblinoid power definitely adds another layer to my ideas for an aberration-focused campaign.
aelryinth
06-30-05, 06:25 PM Neogi ships are from Spelljammer...not exactly extraplanar, they can fly between worlds with spelljamming helms.

If you are going to open that can of worms, you have to bring in the competition to the Neogi...the Arcane, who originally supplied spelljamming helms to just about everyone...including the neogi.

Of course, there's this big ring up in the sky with all those moons...who says it doesn't keep out all them wicked Helms which would so quickly trump airship travel?

Neogi deal is in slaves and goods. Giving away magical tech isn't generally part of their portfolio, tho it could be. I just see binding as an outgrowth of elemental summoning and ability with jewels/crafting...a combination of magic and craftsmanship gnomes are particularly suited for.

I would make the neogi a twisted form of the DROW, fled from the Daelkyr and based in Xendrik. They use their spiderships as trade vehicles to and fro, raiding or trading as the whim takes them, and trying to stay free of their ancient makers. It would explain their domination over umber hulks very nicely, and preference to fly around...away from the depths where their ancient masters and servants might rise to get them. They'd probably dwell on unreachable mountain peaks to keep themselves safe from the drow who revile them and the Daelkyr-spawn who want to dominate them once more.

===Aelryinth

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
talion09 06-30-05, 04:02 AM	Or more to the point, has anyone used the material in Lords of Madness to any great effect in their Eberron campaigns? I'm contemplating a large campaign arc revolving around the Cults of Dragon Below, the Daelkyr, Gatekeepers and of course, abominations. I was flipping through my copy of LoM today, and I wondered if anyone has actually used the material in Eberron. Ideas I'm toying with... An Aboleth City in the seas around Xendrik... or maybe an Aboleth setting up shop in the sewers of Sharn, and sending out its Skum and other servants to cause trouble Neogi instigating giants to attack Stormreach in order that they can keep Xendrik's ruins and resources to themselves. Okay, I really just want an excuse to run through the classic Against the Giants again, and this gives me an excuse to throw Giants, Umber Hulks & Abberations at my players :-) Tsochar taking over the upper society of Sharn, one dragonmark heir and wizard at a time... actually, I can envision a cool shadow war between the tsochar & their hosts and the Quori-influenced Deneith Heirs over who gets to corrupt and control the dragonmark heirs of Sharn... or my players come back to Sharn after completing GotEC, and find out the hard way that Lady Elaydren has been possessed by a tsochar Anyways, I'd appreciate any feedback from people who have done Abberation-focused campaigns in Eberron, or have tried using some of the Lords of Madness material.
Setherial 06-30-05, 05:51 AM	yeb, I used it to get into the aboleth mindset. I have an adventure worked out where an aboleth is trying to sink Khorvaire using an epic staff of weather controlling. I posed the idea about a month ago but by now the post dropped of the forum post list. Since there is no way of searching this forum, the post is gone.
Damien_Hiro 06-30-05, 10:50 AM	Are you doing a heroic or horrorific campaign. I have done the Horrific campaign and my group still shudders at the words, "mmm...brains." It was probably one of the best campaigns I have done. At the end there was an epic battle between the gorup and an ultraillithid. Only two PC's survived to retire after that, but they were never the same. Your charcters either become super paranoid or not paranoid enough and die.
ekomega 06-30-05, 01:17 PM	Since my group will be going against the minions of the Daelkyr in the near future, I plan to use some of material. Of particular interest are illithids, the far realm template, the pseudonatural template, and a few PrCs to give some allies of the group. I don't know how much of the random stuff I will use. But it certainly has good material for a Daelkyr adventure or campaign.
talion09 06-30-05, 02:13 PM	Well, I searched (okay, search is still down, but I manually looked through all the pages of old threads, lol) for the old thread we had on Lords of Madness in Eberron, but it appears to have been deleted due to old age. I recall that someone else some good ideas about the Neogi. Specifically, that they were creations of the Daelkyr, and that they dwelt in Khyber, traversing the underdark looking for profit. Dwelling in Khyber made sense too when considering their umber hulk slaves, who have the ability to burrow through solid rock. The neogi spiderships were translated from flying machines to underground transports called spidercrawlers. Anyways, I got to thinking about the idea of spidercrawlers. Originally the spiderships were flying ships which could also travel to other worlds, which implies a couple of things in relation to Eberron (or at least my campaign) First, the only other example we have of flying vessels in Eberron is the House Lyrandar/Zilargo airships, which use the newly "discovered" gnomish technique of elemental binding. Elemental binding which incidently uses Khyber shards to bind the elementals, dragonshards which would be fairly common and easy to acquire for the Neogi in their travels through Khyber. Secondly, the Neogi Spiderships seem to be more advanced or powerful than the Lyrandar/Zilargo airships, by virtue of their planar travel. It isn't explicitly stated how this planar travel is accomplished in LoM, but I think that is because not all DM's want to deal with Spelljammer. But whether it is actually through flying through the void, or by some other sort of magic, the spiderships seem to be more advanced versions of the Lyrandar airships. Thirdly, the Neogi will deal with anyone for a profit. Same goes for the Zilargo gnomes. And both Neogi and Gnomes are tricky, plotting sneaks, looking out for themselves first, and the Gnomes of Zilargo were understandably desperate during the Last War, especially with the new prominence of the goblinoids in Khorvaire's power structure. What if the Gnomes didn't "invent" the elemental binding techniques, but instead acquired it from Neogi traders? The gnomes get a new technology which makes them more powerful and influential, not to mention rich. But they would want to conceal the real source of their knowledge for a couple of reasons. First, if other nations make the same deal with the Neogi, then the Zilargo advantage is diminished. Secondly, openly dealing with daelkyr spawn from khyber is a bit a PR nightmare for the gnomes. Thirdly, who knows what price they paid for the knowledge. I'm guessing a large chunk of cash and gems, and most likely a lot of slaves that "died" during the Last War. I'm not sure if I'm going to run with this idea in my campaign, but the idea of the Trust making unsavory and covert deals with the Neogi to acquire weapons technology during the Last War to increase Zilargo's prestige and to help counterbalance the upsurge in Goblinoid power definitely adds another layer to my ideas for an aberration-focused campaign.
aelryinth 06-30-05, 06:25 PM	Neogi ships are from Spelljammer...not exactly extraplanar, they can fly between worlds with spelljamming helms. If you are going to open that can of worms, you have to bring in the competition to the Neogi...the Arcane, who originally supplied spelljamming helms to just about everyone...including the neogi. Of course, there's this big ring up in the sky with all those moons...who says it doesn't keep out all them wicked Helms which would so quickly trump airship travel? Neogi deal is in slaves and goods. Giving away magical tech isn't generally part of their portfolio, tho it could be. I just see binding as an outgrowth of elemental summoning and ability with jewels/crafting...a combination of magic and craftsmanship gnomes are particularly suited for. I would make the neogi a twisted form of the DROW, fled from the Daelkyr and based in Xendrik. They use their spiderships as trade vehicles to and fro, raiding or trading as the whim takes them, and trying to stay free of their ancient makers. It would explain their domination over umber hulks very nicely, and preference to fly around...away from the depths where their ancient masters and servants might rise to get them. They'd probably dwell on unreachable mountain peaks to keep themselves safe from the drow who revile them and the Daelkyr-spawn who want to dominate them once more. ===Aelryinth